The Compleat Angler or the Contemplative Man's Recreation, Being a Discourse of Fish and Fishing, first edition, engraved vignette on title, 6 engraved vignettes of fish, 2 pages of music, without final blank R4, short tear without loss in I7, a few headlines cut close and very rarely shaving a letter (M3), fore-margin of the leaf of music at page 216 shaved with slight loss, waterstains affecting a few leaves, flyleaf inscribed "Robert H. Meyricke from his Mother Mary Meyricke Octr. 28th 1882", early nineteenth century half calf, preserved in pull-off calf-backed case [Westwood & Satchell, p.217; Coigney 1; Horne 1; Oliver 1; Pforzheimer 1048; Wing W661], 8vo (136 x 85mm.), Richard Marriott, 1653

Footnotes

A VERY GOOD COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION OF THE MOST FAMOUS WORK IN ANGLING LITERATURE.

"A FIRST Walton confers distinction upon its owner... Copies rarely reach the auction room" (Westwood & Satchell). There are various typesetting errors in the first edition, although corrected and uncorrected sheets seem to have been issued indiscriminately, with little significance to the priority of issue. In the present copy "contention" (a mistake for "contentment") is uncorrected on page 245; the bass voice of Henry Lawes' "Angler's Song" (p.217) is printed upside down (corrected in other copies), the idea being for two singers to stand opposite each other sharing the score. The second edition was heavily revised and expanded by more than one third, "which gives to [the first] edition an importance other than that due [to] its priority" (Pforzheimer).

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